Raspberry Pi 4 based LoRaWAN gateway has GPS and optional LTE

Raspberry Pi 4 based LoRaWAN gateway has GPS and optional LTE

Dec 20, 2019 — by Eric Brown

— 3103 views

RAK has launched a $212 and up “RAK7244 LoRaWAN Developer Gateway” with a Raspberry Pi 4, a LoRa and GPS enabled RAK2245 Pi HAT, and an optional RAK2013 Cellular Pi HAT with a Quectel EG95 LTE CAT4 module.

RAK Wireless’ latest gateway for low-power, long distance LoRa communications offers optional LTE. The RAK7244 LoRaWAN Developer Gateway is built around the Raspberry Pi 4 SBC along with LoRa and optional LTE HAT add-ons. You also get an enclosure, antennas, a microSD card, and a power adapter. The gateway is designed for smart grids, intelligent farms, and other IoT enterprise applications.

RAK7244 LoRaWAN Developer Gateway from both sides
(click images to enlarge)

The gateway can receive up to 8x LoRa packets simultaneously, even if sent with different spreading factors (SF7-SF12) on different channels. It’s available in multiple, identically priced variants supporting different LoRa Alliance frequency bands from EU433 to US915, supporting 433MHz, 470MHz, 865MHz, 868MHz, 915MHz, 920MHz, and 923MHz bands.

The standard $212 model features the RAK2245 Pi HAT for LoRaWan, which also adds GPS and is separately available for $120. The $291 LTE model adds the RAK2013 Cellular Pi HAT, which also sells separately for $99.

RAK2245 Pi HAT with LoRa and GPS (left) and LTE-enabled RAK2013 Cellular Pi HAT

The RAK7244 gateway follows an earlier, since discontinued, Raspberry Pi 3 based RAK831 Pilot Gateway SX1301 and Raspberry Pi 3+ based, $469 to $599 RAK7249 Macro Outdoor Gateway, as reported by the CNXSoft story that alerted us to the product. RAK offers a wide variety of LoRa related gear, including a RAK833 mini-PCIe LoRa module and RAK811 LoRa radio module, which power Pi Supply’s Iot LoRa Gateway HAT and LoRa Node pHAT, respectively.


RAK7249 Macro Outdoor Gateway (left) and RAK833 mini-PCIe module
(click images to enlarge)

The RAK7244 Pi HAT gateway concentrator module inside the RAK7244 LoRaWAN Developer Gateway is equipped with the Semtech 1301 digital baseband chip for outdoor LoRaWAN macro gateways, as well as dual SX1257/58 front-end chips. There’s also a Ublox MAX-7Q GPS module. The HAT supports LoRaWAN 1.0.2 and offers up to 27dBm Tx power and down to -139dBm RX sensitivity. The 65 x 56 xx 22mm HAT is said to improve over the previous RAK831 model, with improved noise resistance and a redesigned heat sink.

All these features and specs carry through onto the gateway, which also offers the optional RAK2013 Cellular Pi HAT. This gives you a Quectel BG96/EG95 module with support for 4G/LTE, Nb-IoT, and CAT-M/CAT1/CAT4, accompanied by nano and eSIM slots. On the gateway, the 65 x 56 x 19.95mm HAT is available in EG95-E EMEA or EG95-NA North American models. (When the HAT is bought separately, you can also opt for a cheaper, $78 BG96 model, but this is not supported on the gateway.)

The RAK2013 Cellular Pi HAT is further equipped with a mikroBus header for Click modules, enabling sensor applications such as remote environmental monitoring and presence sensing. It also integrates an audio amp and codec, making it suitable for Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE).

The RAK7244 LoRaWAN Developer Gateway has an aluminum, 90 x 90 x 50mm, 6-kg enclosure with a 5V power adapter that connects to the Raspberry Pi 4’s USB Type-C port. It also adds GPS and LoRA antennas, and on the LTE model, dual LTE antennas. The bundled microSD card has Raspbian Linux based firmware, enabling connections to any standard LoRaWAN Server. Other resources are available at the ChirpStack site, which provides a compatible, open source LoRaWAN Network Server stack.

Further information

The RAK7244 LoRaWAN Developer Gateway is available now for $212 for LoRa/GPS only or $291 for the version that adds LTE. More information may be found on RAK Wireless’ RAK7244 shopping page.